The effect of intervention strategies used by teachers on learners who display emotional and behavioral disorders in some schools in the Qwaqwa region of the eastern Free State province of South Africa

This study sought to investigate the extent to which teachers witness any kind of emotional and/or behavioural disorders displayed by learners at the three levels of schooling in QwaQwa, namely junior and senior primary and secondary schools. The focus was on whether the intervention strategies teachers use are effective or not, particularly since corporal punishment was curtailed by law as stated in the South African Schools Act of 1996. The effectiveness of each strategy was investigated at these three levels in 12 schools, where 98 questionnaires were distributed to teachers, and principals were interviewed with the hope of uncovering information that people might more easily provide in conversations than in written form. The findings revealed that learners do display emotional and emotional behavioural disorders (EBDs), which are sometimes stressful for teachers. Although there were no significant differences in the extent of the occurrences, neverthless it was alarming to discover that senior primary learners were the most problematic of the three levels